Meet Jill Casty / Fused Glass Sculptor Casty | Fused Glass Sculptor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jill Casty / Fused Glass Sculptor Casty and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jill Casty / Fused Glass Sculptor, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I had a small business doing graphic design in Los Angeles. Then moved to Santa Monica. In the beginning I was designing books in the education field, mostly for young children and many filled with illustration. I moved from that to beautiful designer Coffee Table books, then into commercial design doing catalogs and presentation materials. From there to the Shopping Center industry in its heyday. Each endeavor was a lot of fun. Each move involved some risk as that speciality was new to me.

I’ve always taken the approach of saying Yes, and then figuring out how to do what was requested.

From working in the shopping center industry I was asked to create a mobile for a center in Sacramento. I made two models so the developer could choose his favorite. As it turned out, he liked both and we ended up making three – one for the center court and two in two side halls. From the taking of this “risk” I became an Artist and created several works of “Public Art.” One is in the city of Rancho Cucamonga, one in Whittier and one in Montclair. Other works – one for Century City Shopping Center – were for temporary installation. I did a huge series of hanging art for a center in Auburn Washington, another for one in St. Louis, Mo. and the largest for a center in Sacramento.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In my current life I have become a fused glass artist. When my husband and I decided to live in Italy for a year, we hunted down and found a kiln and some glass for fusing. I had taken a local class in this artform but really set up to experiment while we were there. Even when some of my experimental pieces broke I found them exciting and worked them into sculptures. At first I was using the glass as an adjunct to a metal sculpture, adding color and the special excitement of the glass. As time went on I found that it was the glass itself that was of the most interest to me. I still combine metal with my glass, but now the fused glass is the featured material.

I’ve seen a lot of glass art and it’s a particularly wonderful material as it can be approached and used in so many different ways. Blown glass, cold worked glass, fused glass, etched, etc. I’m a fuser but I like to make works that are paintings or pictures, that represent something, usually connected with nature or folk art, and then interpret and abstract the image celebrating the intense colors as they exist in their special light carrying way.

I do believe my approach to and work with the glass is unique. The message I hope to convey is that despite all, life has beauty in it and I want to bring that beauty and the joy of it to any audience I’m lucky enough to have. After we did that first year in Italy we spent the next twelve years living either in Italy or Mexico. Coming back to the states for shorter and shorter periods.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
L. A. has a wonderful cache of museums and galleries. Depending on who my visitor is, we would visit several of L. A.’s finest. los Angeles County, The Getty, Norton Simon, The Hammer, and more. Then there’s the Huntington Library and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. If my visitor were a film buff I would try to catch one of the special showings of films in Tribeca or at the museum.

We would walk a lot and see lots of street art. Visits in Santa Monica. Lots of good sushi dining.

Venice and environs.

Bergamot Station.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people. First, I suppose, is my mother – who had real design talent in so many areas – mostly clothing. She designed and made hats, gloves, sweaters and other knitted items, etc. Then my sister was lucky enough to attend the High School of Music and Art in New York City. What she learned there and shared was another big influence in my thinking and life. My wonderful husband who was an art lover and a very knowledgeable art appreciator. We attended shows in many parts of the country and then began to travel and learn about various arts in countries around the world – mostly in Europe and Mexico. When I started to do my work in glass he was enormously helpful in the effort of getting set up where I had my first kiln in Italy, then took it and a lot of supplies to Baja California where I worked next. And always participated in the work of having a gallery show, the publicity for same, etc.

Then there are the many fabricators I’ve worked with. Each a unique and creative talent. I’ve worked with four different fabricators here in California – particularly with Marcos Suarez who worked with me on my public pieces and now works with me on my smaller, more personal glass art. In Italy, through a friend I met Anthony Biachessi and we did some wonderful work together. Several people in Mexico, etc.

Of course I’ve been inspired by so many artists. Alexander Calder, Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh, Joan Miro, Frank Stella, David Hockney, Arthur Secunda, Picasso, Freida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe. And then the folk art especially of Mexico. And then the beauty of nature. The most inspiring of all.

Website: JillCastyArt www.jillcastyglassart.com

Instagram: jillcasty or castyjill

Linkedin: Jill Casty

Facebook: Jill Casty